Designing enterprise integration solutions: effectively

The design of large and complex enterprise integration solutions is a difficult task. It can require solutions that are unique because of constraints from the current set of legacy applications. Design knowledge for enterprise integration solutions is, therefore, difficult to articulate and reuse. In particular, the nature and form of knowledge for conceptual design of integration solutions is difficult to pin down. In this paper, we investigate whether design knowledge for enterprise integration in the form of patterns can be reused to develop systems integration solutions, and whether such reuse leads to more effective design outcomes. The research follows design science guidelines in which we describe a research artifact, and evaluate it to assess whether it meets the intended goals. The results indicate that approaches to facilitate reuse of conceptual design knowledge are feasible in the domain of enterprise integration, and that such reuse does, in fact, lead to more effective design solutions.     

Organisational considerations for software reuse

Reuse is widely promoted as one of the most promising methods for increasing productivity and quality within software development. Until recently most research into strategies for systematic reuse has focused on solution of the technical issues. Now as companies (mostly IT focused) implement the strategies developed, they find there are other issues which hold back their success, somewhat unrelated to the technical solutions offered. Reuse processes are not simple technologies and methods slotted into a development, like the transition in design notation from traditional approaches to an object-;orientated method. Whereas technology changes involve retraining developers. Reuse requires the whole organisation and funding of development to be revised. If the magnitude of change involved in transitioning an IT organisation is so encompassing, where does this leave the rest of industry which is increasingly reliant on software to support their business process? This paper looks at organisational and management issues raised by the introduction of software reuse to the development process. We identify inhibitors of reuse adoption, look at causes of these and suggest possible solutions. We aim to concisely present all those non-;technical issues that should be considered when introducing a reuse program. Considered also is how these issues affect companies which have IT in only a business support capacity, making this paper relevant throughout industry.     

The influence of SOA governance mechanisms on IT flexibility and service reuse

While many firms have introduced SOA, only one in five have achieved anticipated benefits such as increased IT flexibility or reuse. Industry analysts assume that a lack of SOA governance is the main reason why SOA projects fail. Addressing the substantial research gap on SOA governance this paper theoretically and empirically investigates which SOA governance mechanisms are needed to achieve the benefits of SOA, such as increasing IT flexibility and reusing services. The proposed theoretical SOA governance model is evaluated using data from 81 SOA-using organizations.Overall, the results confirm the relevance of a variety of SOA governance mechanisms (structures, processes, and employees/relations), but at the same time, that IT infrastructure flexibility and service reuse are influenced by different mechanisms. Key governance mechanisms that show a strong effect on infrastructure flexibility are using standards, service management processes, educating employees, and IT/business communication while reuse can only be increased through service management, standards and qualification. Contrary to expectations, implementing new, dedicated decision-making bodies for SOA hampers organizations in achieving higher degrees of IT flexibility and reuse, and a firm is better off using existing IT decision-making bodies.     

关于中小机场信息化建设的思考

在信息化建设和应用过程中,缺乏信息化发展战略,从而产生了一些问题:成本增加、重复建设、信息孤岛、信息化建设与经营发展战略脱节,信息资源利用效率低。因此,中小机场信息化建设必须由战术行为提升为战略行为,由局部推进转变为整体推进,由技术驱动改变为业务驱动。要搞好战略规划并重视对数据的建设与开发。主要实施步骤是:完善信息基础设施建设、推广应用办公系统、实施业务信息化、推进管理和业务的综合集成。     

Opening up design science: The challenge of designing for reuse and joint development

The purpose of this paper is to advance design science by developing a framework for research on reuse and the relationship between external IT artifacts and their users. A design science approach to IS research needs to grapple with the fact that a number of relevant, economically attractive, external IT artifacts cannot be designed from scratch nor meaningfully evaluated based on the current state of development, and so design science research will struggle with incomplete cycles of design, relevance, and rigor. We suggest a strategic research agenda that integrates the design of the relationship between an external IT artifact and the user by considering the impact artifacts exert on users. Three dimensions derived from adaptive structuration theory inform our framework on three levels of design granularity (middle management, top management, and entrepreneur): agenda considers the dynamic properties of technological objects, adaptability refers to the functional affordance of external artifacts in development, and auspice captures the symbolic expression and scope for interpretation. We derive implications for research design.     

基于Web服务的零部件参数化设计重用

在分析产品零部件设计重用过程的基础上,借鉴软件重用中组件模型的可重用服务及接口与实现过程相分离等思想,给出一个基于Web服务的零部件参数设计重用框架。该框架由上至下分别为设计接口层、设计服务层、设计结果层。在服务端通过软件集成技术(如iSIGHT等)实现零部件设计过程自动化、参数化及集成化,建立零部件的参数化设计模板。利用Web封装技术(如EASA软件)对参数化设计模板封装、管理,从而实现客户端基于Web服务的零部件参数化设计重用。实例验证表明,通过该方法实现的零部件重用在保证零部件设计质量前提下可有效地提高效率。     

协同办公系统

随着计算机信息技术的迅速发展,企业信息化应用的深入,办公自动化的理念也从传统的"文档管理"向"协同办公"、"任务协作"、"知识管理"演变。协同办公系统是建设企业高效的协同管理工作平台的新一代的办公自动化系统。通过协同办公系统实现企业的业务流程整合,知识管理平台、组织文化平台建设。文章论述了企业建立协同办公系统平台的必要性,建设协同办公系统的原则和设计。     

Systematische Überführung von kundenspezifischen IT-Lösungen in integrierte Produkt-Dienstleistungsbausteine mit der SCORE-Methode

IT solutions are customer-specific and integrated bundles of hardware products, software products, and services. The SCORE method helps providers of IT solutions to benefit from a successive standardization and reuse of non-differentiating product-service-bundles. As a comprehensive standardization of IT solutions is likely to fail, the SCORE methods supports the successive modularization of IT solutions. In particular, the method suggests identifying system service modules that capture single hardware and software components as well as their associated services to support a simultaneous standardization and reuse of product-service-bundles in the small. An example illustrates how the application of the method improves the development of custom IT solutions.     

ChangeLedge: Change design and planning in networked systems based on reuse of knowledge and automation

Proper management of Information Technology (IT) resources and services has become imperative for the success of modern organizations. The IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) represents, in this context, the most widely accepted framework to help achieve this end. Among the processes that compose ITIL, change management has an important role in defining best practices and processes for the efficient and prompt handling of IT changes. In practice, however, such changes are usually described and documented in an ad hoc fashion, due to the lack of proper support to assist the design process. This hampers knowledge acquired when specifying, planning, and carrying out previous changes to be reused in subsequent requests, even though such reuse may result in fewer incidents and faster specification of change plans. To address this problem, in this paper we present a conceptual solution to support the design and planning of IT changes and explore the concept of change templates as a mechanism to formalize, preserve, and (re)use knowledge in the specification of (recurrent and similar) IT changes. To prove concept and technical feasibility of the proposed solution, we have developed a prototypical implementation of a change management system called ChangeLedge and used it to carry out a set of experiments, considering typical IT changes. The results obtained indicate the effectiveness and efficiency of the system, which is able to generate accurate and actionable change plans in substantially less time than would be spent by a skilled human operator.     

Integrating Core it Processes: A Case Study

Because of their growing importance, IT organizations are reexamining how they manage their core processes. Most often, these processes are disconnected, isolated, and barely controlled. the IT organization studied in this article used a holistic approach to evaluate, design, and implement a framework that integrates core IT processes. This integration helped the IT department to gain control of its key activities.     

水利图集编制方案研究与实践

针对水利图集编制方法的研究不足,水利制图对地理信息整合利用水平不高等问题,运用数字制图和数据库管理等技术,探索信息数据的地图化开发利用方式,设计水利图集的编制方案,促进水利制图在信息化建设中的深度融合.分析水利图集的功能需求,设计编目分组结构和主题内容,基于水利地理信息平台组织地图数据,建设底图库,进行主题表达设计和要...     

The advanced information technology innovation roadmap

The AIT (Advanced Information Technology for the European Manufacturing Industry) initiative is focusing on IT innovations and their integration in the users enterprise. This is achieved through the deployment of the AIT Innovation Cycle starting with the AIT strategic planning (development of a common master plan) and finishing with the business integration of complete IT innovative solutions. The IT integration includes two major action streams supported by various R&D projects belonging to the ESPRIT and Brite Euram research programmes, which are: The technological integration which is achieved in strong cooperation with IT vendors through the development of integration platforms based on emerging standards such as STEP, CORBA, JAVA, etc. In this integration context, the CIMOSA framework has been used to build the AIT IT Reference Model (ITRM). The IT innovations integration into the users' enterprise which consider the usage of all the CIMOSA views (function view, information view, organisation view, resources view including Human, Financial and IT resources) as well as their aggregation in order to support the development of generic networked enterprise (re)engineering methodologies, processes and associated IT supporting tools. This paper is focusing on the second integration stream by describing the progress achieved to date in the AIT-IMPLANT project. The aim of this ESPRIT project is to develop a generic enterprise change management methodology and associated IT tools to support the integration of IT Innovations into the networked manufacturing enterprises.     

企业并购后信息整合策略之个案研究

企业并购是企业强化竞争优势的工具，信息整合则是并购后整合成功的关键因素。诸多学者认为并购后的信息整合策略应校准于并购策略，本研究则认为信息整合策略应考虑：（1）信息部门的协同合作；（2）各部门在整合策略上的相互配合，将以实务观点探讨企业并购后的信息整合策略。 本研究基于企业工程（Enterprise Engineering）以及校准观点发展一信息整合策略分析架构，藉由个案研究探讨并购后：（1）并购双方规划信息整合策略时的关键因素；（2）信息整合策略规划与执行的成功因素；（3）信息系统与营运流程整合的标准化。研究结果显示，信息整合策略的规划应参考其它部门的整合策略，而各部门关键人员参与，以及信息流程与商业流程标准化皆有助信息整合策略的执行。     

Isolated versus integrated case studies: A comparison in the context of teaching complex and domain-specific IT applications

Previous research on IT fluency in connection with non-IT majors points at the increasing need for more “realistic” courses teaching the use of complex and domain-specific IT applications. That research also suggests certain desirable course design characteristics, of which one of the most important is the close integration of realistic case study-based material into one single course (as opposed to the less costly alternative of inserting single case study-based material into other courses). This paper describes a study in which the use of case study-based learning modules in an integrated way (i.e., as part of one main course) is compared against the use of those modules in isolation (i.e., inserted into other courses). The modules have been designed to teach complex and domain-specific IT applications in three main domains – anthropology, sociology, and chemistry. The study, which involved 76 undergraduate students, suggests that the integration of modules into one single course, when compared with the option of using the modules in isolation, significantly increased the level of perceptions of IT’s potential for solving complex problems, perceived learning about specialized IT applications, and perceived learning about IT issues in general. The key conclusion of the study is that integration may be a desirable option regardless of the potential extra costs involved.     

Impact of IT integration on the firm’s knowledge absorption and desorption

This paper examines the impact of the integration of IT systems with other organizations (IT integration) on the knowledge absorption and desorption of the focal firm. We ran an empirical study in Spain and found that IT integration enables the firm to absorb and desorb knowledge with other organizations, which in turn improves firm performance. This research provides two key contributions to the IS discipline: 1) We introduce the concept of desorptive capacity in the IS research and provide a scale for its measure, 2) we provide a theory of IT integration impact on the firm’s knowledge absorption and desorption.     

采用JavaEE架构体系设计LPGIS平台

法人单位基础信息库(以下简称"法人库")是我国电子政务领域的四大核心基础信息库之一。在常规的开发中,法人库平台和应用开发都集中在一起,不利于系统复用和快速开发。文章采用JavaEE多层架构思想,设计法人库GIS平台(Legal Person GIS,LPGIS),方便开发平台与具体应用的独立,实现快速开发。文章详细介绍了平台的设计思想、软件集的构成以及与特定GIS平台的对接方式。     

IT服务业信息资源整合策略的研究

研究信息资源整合的技术,进一步分析IT服务业信息资源整合的策略,指出IT服务业的发展趋势。了解IT服务业的概况,理解信息资源和信息资源整合的定义与分类,分析了IT服务业信息资源的类型,研究了信息资源整合的多种技术,分析了各种技术的分类和代表厂商及产品,分析了IT服务业的发展趋势。实现了对IT服务业信息资源整合策略的研究。信息资源整合技术实现了IT服务业信息资源的共享,IT服务业在未来几年将会迅速发展。     

Using a soft core in a SoC design: experiences with picoJava

Through our experience in synthesis, validation, test, and integration of the picoJava processor core in a system-on-chip (SoC) design we point out the challenges faced and issues to address in efficient reuse of a soft core     

Methodenkonstruktion für das Business/IT Alignment

Method Construction for Aligning Business and IT Business/IT Alignment represents an organizational change which can only be successfully implemented through a systematic change method. A basic pre-requisite for a suitable change method is its adaptability according to the specific context and the reuse of already standardized fragments to support cost efficiency and on-time delivery of results. Based on an empirical study, a method construction methodology — Change Method Engineering has been developed using method fragments and reference scenarios for designing situational change methods catering for the requirements ?adaptability“, ?timeliness“, and ?cost efficiency“.